Silky cherry curls, brushed against the pink velvety forehead of the small bundle in blankets left on the Smith’s porch fifteen years ago. No letter, no birth certificate, no idea where the child came from, the Smiths, with no child of their own, took her in. The baby, to be named Ellie, was striking with her clear blue eyes, and clear paste skin. With only one small insignificant mark on her entire petit body, a minute brown smear just above her left shoulder blade. Because of the peculiar state of the birthmark, and the worries of Laurie Smith, it was medically examined at a young age, and found benign. Ellie grew, oblivious to the lack of knowledge of her birth parents. Around the age of nine she noticed the difference of her strawberry blonde head compared to Laurie’s chestnut, and David’s brunette. When young, Ellie asked Laurie why she looked different, and Laurie beat around the bush, making excuses.
* *
Fifteen years after being left on that doorstep Ellie is trying on a new dress for a friend’s birthday party. A strapless, knee length, blue dress. It is the first time Laurie has ever let her buy a strapless, and she’s ecstatic, examining the dress at every angle in the mirror. Whipping around to look at her back again, she holds her hair up to get the whole picture. There, on her left shoulder blade, is her birthmark. Ellie’s seen it before and doesn’t notice anything all that different, until she steps closer to get a better look of her dress. Then she sees, something more interesting than significant to her, that it has changed shape. She’s seen the little brown smudge grow and change as she has, but now it almost resembles something, though she can’t put her finger on what. She shrugs to the mirror and goes on to inspect her outfit.
* *
It’s September Fourth, and Mark’s first day at his new school. His hands shake and his legs feel like jelly walking through to find his homeroom. Mark keeps his head down, and just navigated through the groups of friends bragging to each other about their crazy summers. Room 513, his homeroom, and Mark peers inside. Nobody’s there yet, and looking down at his watch he sees he’s five minutes early. Through the hallway Mark sees the kids laughing at each other, girls shrieking and hugging their friends they haven’t seen in two months. He knew being early on the first day of school was odd, but he has nowhere to go, and no one to say hi to. Mark smoothes down his white polo, and green shorts, pulls on the knob and goes into his classroom.
The teacher, Mrs. James, recognizes him as the new kid, remembering all her advisees from last year. “Mark?’ she asks, and he gives her a weak smile before sitting down in the desk closest to him. He sits staring at his feet, counting down the minutes until the rest of the kids, ones who have been together since last year and some even longer, shuffle into the room not a moment before the bell rings. A slight tap, tap, on the tops of his head pulls him out of his stare, and he looks up into the face a pretty blonde girl.
“ ‘Cuse me….but you’re sitting in my seat.” She giggles at him.
Mark mumbles a quick, “I’m sorry,” and moves back two rows. The girl makes a charade of walking around the desk, lightly plopping into it, and flicking her long blonde locks over her shoulder. The rest of the class laughs.
“Now Ellie, behave,” Mrs. James says, but with a tiny smirk on her face, amused by the girl’s character.
Mrs. Smith has them go around, introducing themselves, saying one thing they did over the summer, and a goal they have for this year. Ellie’s second to last, “Ellie Smith duh…” and as the class’s laughter drowns out the second part. “And I guess my goal would be to get that kid back there to smile,” as she gestures back at Mark and the class laughs again. After their all done the attention moves back to Mrs. Smith as she goes on the explain schedules and other technicalities. Mark lifts his head, when no one’s looking, and glances at Ellie. He looks at the sun shining off of her gold hair, and her smile as she secretly laughs with the girl next to her. Mrs. Smith shoots the two girls a look and they both turn their concentration toward the board. It’s when Ellie takes her blonde hair off her back and begins the braid it on the side that Mark sees it. Next to her tank top strap lays a brown birthmark, with a very distinct shape.
The second the bell rings Mark rushes up and out, right past Ellie, to get a better look at that mark. He’s dumbfounded as he walks by, because as he thought, the mark has a very distinct shape - like half a crown. Almost identical to the one above his own shoulder blade.
* *
It took Mark a month the get up the courage to talk to Ellie, and even then, it took her another month to really want to believe it. Mark explained, he was adopted, his parents had gotten him when he was three months old. “But I’m not,” Ellie insisted, “I’m not.” Hearing the hesitancy in her voice Mark knew that she knew it too. There was a reason she didn’t look like her parents. They became close quickly after that, even though it cost Ellie some friends to reach out the to new kid so much. By the end of the year Ellie had worked up enough courage to finally confront her parents. So she did.
They broke down and admitted it. She was mad at first, but realized they were only doing it for her, and they had been parents any girl would want. The two had a DNA test done when they reached twenty, and it was positive. They were brother and sister.
- * *
Fifteen years after being left on that doorstep Ellie is trying on a new dress for a friend’s birthday party. A strapless, knee length, blue dress. It is the first time Laurie has ever let her buy a strapless, and she’s ecstatic, examining the dress at every angle in the mirror. Whipping around to look at her back again, she holds her hair up to get the whole picture. There, on her left shoulder blade, is her birthmark. Ellie’s seen it before and doesn’t notice anything all that different, until she steps closer to get a better look of her dress. Then she sees, something more interesting than significant to her, that it has changed shape. She’s seen the little brown smudge grow and change as she has, but now it almost resembles something, though she can’t put her finger on what. She shrugs to the mirror and goes on to inspect her outfit.- * *
It’s September Fourth, and Mark’s first day at his new school. His hands shake and his legs feel like jelly walking through to find his homeroom. Mark keeps his head down, and just navigated through the groups of friends bragging to each other about their crazy summers. Room 513, his homeroom, and Mark peers inside. Nobody’s there yet, and looking down at his watch he sees he’s five minutes early. Through the hallway Mark sees the kids laughing at each other, girls shrieking and hugging their friends they haven’t seen in two months. He knew being early on the first day of school was odd, but he has nowhere to go, and no one to say hi to. Mark smoothes down his white polo, and green shorts, pulls on the knob and goes into his classroom.The teacher, Mrs. James, recognizes him as the new kid, remembering all her advisees from last year. “Mark?’ she asks, and he gives her a weak smile before sitting down in the desk closest to him. He sits staring at his feet, counting down the minutes until the rest of the kids, ones who have been together since last year and some even longer, shuffle into the room not a moment before the bell rings. A slight tap, tap, on the tops of his head pulls him out of his stare, and he looks up into the face a pretty blonde girl.
“ ‘Cuse me….but you’re sitting in my seat.” She giggles at him.
Mark mumbles a quick, “I’m sorry,” and moves back two rows. The girl makes a charade of walking around the desk, lightly plopping into it, and flicking her long blonde locks over her shoulder. The rest of the class laughs.
“Now Ellie, behave,” Mrs. James says, but with a tiny smirk on her face, amused by the girl’s character.
Mrs. Smith has them go around, introducing themselves, saying one thing they did over the summer, and a goal they have for this year. Ellie’s second to last, “Ellie Smith duh…” and as the class’s laughter drowns out the second part. “And I guess my goal would be to get that kid back there to smile,” as she gestures back at Mark and the class laughs again. After their all done the attention moves back to Mrs. Smith as she goes on the explain schedules and other technicalities. Mark lifts his head, when no one’s looking, and glances at Ellie. He looks at the sun shining off of her gold hair, and her smile as she secretly laughs with the girl next to her. Mrs. Smith shoots the two girls a look and they both turn their concentration toward the board. It’s when Ellie takes her blonde hair off her back and begins the braid it on the side that Mark sees it. Next to her tank top strap lays a brown birthmark, with a very distinct shape.
The second the bell rings Mark rushes up and out, right past Ellie, to get a better look at that mark. He’s dumbfounded as he walks by, because as he thought, the mark has a very distinct shape - like half a crown. Almost identical to the one above his own shoulder blade.
- * *
It took Mark a month the get up the courage to talk to Ellie, and even then, it took her another month to really want to believe it. Mark explained, he was adopted, his parents had gotten him when he was three months old. “But I’m not,” Ellie insisted, “I’m not.” Hearing the hesitancy in her voice Mark knew that she knew it too. There was a reason she didn’t look like her parents. They became close quickly after that, even though it cost Ellie some friends to reach out the to new kid so much. By the end of the year Ellie had worked up enough courage to finally confront her parents. So she did.They broke down and admitted it. She was mad at first, but realized they were only doing it for her, and they had been parents any girl would want. The two had a DNA test done when they reached twenty, and it was positive. They were brother and sister.